On Feb. 11, 2011, Trenton Thomas allegedly bought a $2,000 vehicle for a stranger who claimed she was stranded in Dallas with a child on a trip to visit her mother, an apparent stroke victim at Baylor University Hospital. Thomas said that act soon escalated into a winding series of small and large loans he made to Tarah McCorkle over the next year, all to help her master a growing list of reported challenges, problems and heartbreaks.